A twisting whip of golden fire lashed out at the charging Demonkin. The beast did not have time to react before the flame sliced through its flesh. The hulking Demonkin was nearly split in two from the single attack. Its corpse collapsed to the ground lifelessly. In just a few seconds the golden flames spread across the corpse, consuming it, and leaving only charcoal behind.

I frowned as I looked at the useless remains of the once formidable Demonkin. With a twist of my wrist, the golden whip faded into sparks and vanished. Moments later, a piercing whistle echoed across the sky.

Sylvie’s bright red and gold feathers reflected the sunlight as she flew at high speed directly towards me. Chasing the small bird was a massive insect with far too many legs for comfort. Its red eyes glowed with bloodlust.

As the two approached, I did not resummon the golden flame. Instead, I reached for a delicate-looking bracelet on my wrist. Knowing that the battles would get fierce, I had taken this bracelet while I was in Bellator. It was an armament that had once belonged to a dear friend of mine and one of the few truely powerful ones I had not donated to the Thirteenth Division. At my touch, the small chain bracelet started to glow. Responding to my thoughts, it twisted as if alive and stretched out an impossibly long chain towards the Demonkin chasing Sylvie. Despite the metal of the chain looking fragile, the moment the chain wrapped around the Demonkin it was as unbreakable as a mountain of steel.

The Demonkin kicked up a cloud of dust as it collapsed to the ground. It struggled against its bindings but its actions were futile.

I snapped my fingers and a small green fire sparked to life. The green flame floated slowly towards the bound Demonkin before sinking through its skin. The insect creature let out a horrible screech as it writhed in pain for nearly a minute before falling still. The red of its eye was replaced by a brilliant green. I released the chain binding the new undead and pointed towards the wall of mist in the distance.

“Kill all the Demonkin you can,” I commanded.

The undead insect bowed towards me before charging off into the distance with a mighty screech. I watched it charge fearlessly into the distance before disappearing into the red veil. A minute later, my connection was cut off from the new undead as it was torn limb from limb by the monsters hidden just out of sight.

While the unfortunate undead was not able to accomplish much, I did get a quick look at what was happening beyond that curtain of red. Thousands of Demonkin prowled the edges of the mist. Every breath they took, expanded the reach of the mist. Rather than roaming freely as normal beasts would, these Demonkin moved in formations. They were almost like robots as they worked without rest.

I smoothed out one of Sylvie’s feathers and she rubbed her head against my hand affectionately. “Go draw a few more out for me. I need to know more about what is going on in the mist.”

Sylvie whistled excitedly and jumped off my hand. In a flash, she flew into the mint. I could not see what was happening behind the red curtain but based on the angry roars, I could guess. A few seconds later, Sylvie reappeared with two more Demonkin chasing after her.

I took these two Demonkin down the same way I had for the insect Demonkin before. Within a few minutes, they became my eyes and charged into the blood mist. This process was repeated several times over the next hour. During that time, my undead spotted three Demonkin that were Different from the others. These Demonkin were stronger and faster than any of the others around them. They each had powers similar to innate talents. My undead could not even leave a scratch on their thick hides before they were smashed into pulp. Not willing to incite the rage of the mature Demonkin just yet, I retreated back from the encroaching wall of red mist and returned to the coalition encampment.

“How went the scoutin’?” General Arthur asked when he spotted my return.

“About as expected,” I replied with a sigh, “The Demons are keeping a tight rein on the Demonkin for now. They will not leave the mist unless directly provoked. My guess is that they are taking the cautious approach and fortifying their domain until Envy arrives but I cannot shake the feeling that I am missing something.”

General Arthur nodded solemnly. “I feel the same. Rather than a turtle curling up in its shell, the Demonkin movements are more like a tiger crouchin’ down in preparation to pounce.”

“The question is, where are they pouncing to?” I mused thoughtfully, “I doubt they will attack our coalition directly.”

“If it were me, I would attack the supply lines. Demonkin can survive without food, we cannot.”

I nodded. “The smaller countries to the east are probably the best targets. The mountain pass to Bastya fortress is to our backs. If they controlled that, we would lose support from half the countries in our alliance.”

“I have already sent three of our domain warriors, including General Izmos, to guard the pass. No army should be able to get past us without notice. So, only the Demons themselves would be able to attack. Those three should be able to hold out long enough for the rest of you to respond if the fortress comes under attack. Unless there is a second Demon army somewhere, there should be nothing the Demons can do to surprise us.” General Arthur ran his hand through his hair in frustration, “And yet, I cannot shake the feelin’ we have been tricked.”

“I know,” I said with a frown.

“Does your father still have the necklace I gave him? Make sure he keeps it close by. My gut is rarely wrong. This is going to get much worse before it gets better.”

“I will tell him but I am not willing to wait for the Demons to make the first move. There is someone I need to talk to. I will let you know if I find out anything more.”

General Arthur returned to his duties as I left him behind. I walked towards Dragon’s Nest with Determination. As much as I hated it, there was one person that might be able to answer the questions plaguing my mind, Irene Corvus.

She had shown a willingness to work with me before but I still did not trust the information she so willingly handed out. However, if I gathered information in the traditional ways, it would be too late by the time I learned what the Demons were planning.

Steeling my resolve, I walked into the makeshift prison at the top of the tower. The undead snake woman had barely moved since our last encounter. Her empty eye sockets stared vacantly at the door.

“It is about time you came to see me,” she said with a hiss, “I was starting to think you had forgotten about me.”

“I had more important things to deal with than listen to your half-truths,” I said through gritted teeth.

“And yet here you come crawling again, hoping to learn the secrets of the Demons.”

“Just tell me what you know so that we can both be done with this conversation,” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand.

The snake woman shook her head as her empty eyes looked in my direction. “It is too late. You have already walked into Berith’s trap. There is no escape now.”

I narrowed my eyes at the undead puppet. “Explain.”

Irene spoke in a defeated sigh. “I only learned the truth myself this morning when Berith had me open a new rift using the blood of the Demon you killed. She did not have me open the portal in Ater Albus-Albus as I expected. Instead, I was ordered to open the portal within the first blood mist outbreak I created in the east. While the rift is still not stable enough for Envy himself to come through, thousands of Demonkin have already entered this realm. They have already started marching towards your location. They will reach Bastya fortress by the morning, but that is not all that you face. Berith has struck a deal with the Ciel Empire to the west. She has tricked them into believing they will rule this realm after the Demons take it over, just as she promised me. Two hundred thousand empire soldiers have already moved to block off your retreat. They will reach your coalition by nightfall. Your army has been surrounded on all sides. There is nowhere you can run. This war is already over.”

I felt a cold sweat run down my back as I hurried out of Irene’s prison. If she was speaking the truth, this plateau was about to become a prison. For all my preparations, I had not thought the second-largest power on the continent would be willing to side completely with the Demons. Even if we were able to hold the choke points against a siege from all sides, our supplies could support the army for three weeks at most without any resupply from the countries. Our enemies could simply blockade anything from reaching us and wipe out the starving remains of our army when the food ran dry.

I ran full speed to General Arthur and called an emergency council. All the generals of the coalition gathered together less than a full day since signing the pact against the Demons. Less than twenty-four hours had passed and already we were facing a decision of life and death.

“Those traitorous scum!” General Arthur slammed his fist into the table after I told everyone what I had learned. “I thought it was strange when those Ciel curs did not even send a messenger refusin’ to join the coalition but I thought it was because of their normal arrogance, not this.”

“Wha… what should we do?” one of the generals asked.

“As far as I can see, we only have two choices,” I said with a fake calm that did not match the screaming inside my head, “Our first option is to break through the blockade before it is completely formed and set up a new defensive line somewhere else.”

General Arthur frowned as he tapped on the table. “If we tried that, our flanks would be open to the Demonkin in the mist to the south. Ye might be able to break through, but we would likely lose a third of our troops in the process. That is not to mention the larger siege equipment and defenses we would have to leave behind.”

I nodded in agreement. “Our second option is to fortify this plateau as much as possible and prepare for a siege. Everyone chose this location because it is a natural fortress. Only a hundred men can stand shoulder to shoulder at the mouth of the plateau. The mountain pass to the east is even smaller. Both locations can be defended with ease. There are wells for water. Our only real problem is food.”

“Could your flying island pass over the blockade and retrieve supplies from our allies?” General Arthur asked.

I nooded hesitantly. “Yes, but doing so would paint a bright target for the Demons. To do that we would need to have enough domain warriors protecting it in case of an all-out attack but sending that many of our most powerful warriors on a supply run would leave the army open to attack.”

“It is still a decent option,” General Arthur said thoughtfully. He looked around the command tent meeting the eyes of each of the generals and kings present. “Ye all knew this would not be an easy war. The Demons were never going to sit back and let us act with impunity. The Ciel Empire’s involvement was unexpected as was the Demon army to the east but we can adapt and I believe we can still win. You all selected me to be the commander of this coalition and my choice is to stay here and fight. However, this is not a decision I am willin’ to make for ye. We will hold a vote. Will ye stay and fight like men or run like cowards.”

“I am willing to stay here and fight,” I said confidently.

“The Kala never back down from a challenge,” Svend said in his booming voice.

Sebastion stayed silent but nodded in agreement. In the end, almost everyone agreed that attempting to retreat would be too costly. The coalition would face this threat head-on or die trying.